Charlottesville, Virginia

Position Title: Project Associate/Senior Project Associate 

Organization: Institute for Engagement & Negotiation (IEN), University of Virginia

Location: Charlottesville, VA

Organization Overview:  Founded in 1980, IEN is a public service organization of the University of Virginia, at the School of Architecture, with a team of facilitators and mediators that assists organizations, agencies, industry, and communities in making bold, sustainable decisions.

Position Overview: The IEN seeks a Project Associate or Senior Project Associate who is seeking to join a collaborative fast-paced service-oriented team that supports growth and collaborative learning of all team members. The successful candidate will ideally bring lived experience with communities that IEN engages and serves and/or experience working with these communities; they will also be comfortable working in spaces where issues of systemic racism, equity, and historical disparities inform the nature of the engagement and desired outcomes as well as enjoy working on a broad range of topics that may be highly technical and challenging from public health to climate resilience. This position will join the IEN team and provide project leadership and facilitation while working with collaborative project teams.

This position is 40 hours, with full leave and university benefits. The successful candidate will be someone who is seeking to grow a career in IEN’s widely varied work in collaborative governance. The candidate may work virtually but will be expected to attend in-person staff meetings and all trainings, workshops, or other in-person events. The candidate may also spend one or more nights away from home on occasion for project and/or conference events. The position offers the potential for growth, and IEN encourages and supports educational training for continued skill development. 

Duties:

The Associate may serve as the organizational point of contact for the client and stakeholders on each project being supported with the possible following duties: 

• Coordinate and manage meeting logistics, including stakeholder communications, while ensuring that communications with stakeholders are inclusive and responsive.
• Manage the project budget in consultation with the senior project lead.
• Serve as meeting recorder and/or tech support.
• Develop meeting summaries, ensuring that different perspectives are fully represented.
• Develop agendas for meetings, ensuring that equitable participation is enabled and reflected through the agenda.
• Maintain and organize project files.
• Document project outcomes.
• Maintain project websites.
• Conduct research and assessment.
• Work with student interns to guide, mentor, and supervise their work.
• Facilitate small group work or co-facilitate large group work, with a particular view toward equitable engagement.
• Prepare conference presentations and posters on the project outcomes.
• In addition to these core responsibilities, other duties may be assigned. 

The Senior Associate will work closely with all parties to ensure that the project is implemented within the designated budget and timeline. The successful candidate will have experience and success in developing high quality, nuanced proposals with complex process design that effectively addresses client concerns and objectives, as well as experience in effectively managing and supervising all members of the project team. The Senior Associate will also be responsible for quality assurance in each of their projects. Below is a more specific set of responsibilities envisioned for the Senior Associate:  

• Managing all aspects of IEN projects (below) with a view toward implementing IEN’s six principles of equitable negotiation – i.e., ensuring that that IEN’s processes, facilitation, work with stakeholders, and communications are trauma-informed, inclusive, responsive, truth-seeking, deliberative, and adaptive; 
• Manage all client and stakeholder communications.
• Manage meeting logistics.
• Manage project budget.
• Develop and/or review and edit meeting summaries and meeting agendas.
• Responsible for timely and accurate project file management.
• Ensuring appropriate representation of project outcomes in all written reports, presentations, websites, and public materials.
• Develop research protocols, including submission of research proposals to UVA’s Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and adherence to IRB protocols.
• Providing oversight and mentoring of other IEN staff and student interns.
• Be interested in learning and/or able to conduct different types of training such as equitable facilitation/ collaboration/ negotiation/ community engagement, environmental justice, conflict management, leadership, advancing racial equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• In addition to these core responsibilities, other duties may be assigned. 

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s Degree and two years of related work experience. Equivalent education and experience will be considered in lieu of a degree. 
• Knowledge of and/or passion for the work of the IEN, and a desire to be a fully contributing member of the IEN high-performance team.
• Superlative people and professional-level communication skills, both written and verbal, and demonstrated experience of working with individuals from a variety of background. 
• Demonstrated excellence in proactive project and time management skill.
• Demonstrated excellence with problem solving.
• Strength and experience in working on collaborative decision teams.
• Ability to manage project finances, including budget management and proposal writing.
• Willingness to pursue continuous learning in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and One365/ SharePoint/ Teams.

Desired Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree and/or lived experience with communities that IEN engages and serves or experience serving those communities.
• Experience in facilitating spaces where issues of systemic racism, equity, and historical disparities inform stakeholder engagement and desired outcomes.
• Virginia Mediator certification.
• Experience in two or more the following: stakeholder engagement, conflict management, mediation, negotiation, facilitation.
• Substantive experience in two or more of the following: health, climate resilience, community resilience, environmental and social justice, environmental and racial and social equity, land use, sustainability, food systems, natural resources.
• Ability to work with and oversee undergraduate and graduate student research associates.
• Knowledge of public outreach and stakeholder best practices and ethics.
• Knowledge of current issues relating to Virginia’s built and natural environment.
• Familiarity with local, state, and federal environmental policy, regulations, programs, and institutions.
• Multilingual skills (esp. Spanish) 

Salary: $58,000-$70,000

How to Apply: Please visit https://jobs.virginia.edu and search for “R0055552”

Complete an application online and attach: 

• CV/Resume
• Cover Letter detailing which role you would like to be considered for, your interest in this position and highlighting knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences
• One or more samples of project management and meeting summaries or reports 

IEN aspires to be an inclusive multicultural organization that reflects the values of anti-racism and equity and offers a safe and brave space for people from all walks, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious, veteran status, and political beliefs. IEN’s commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion was developed by IEN staff and is reviewed and refreshed regularly to ensure ongoing awareness and accountability. IEN is also a family-friendly workplace that offers flexible work hours and ability to work virtually for most of the time.